Catalonia determined to declare independence on 9th Oct, 2017 after Spain held a banned referendum that pushed aside European Union to the edges where roots of young democracy have become threatened now.
The president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, attempted to find a way of mediation but the government of Spain clearly rejected the move. Instead, the Prime Minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, said that Catalonia should “return to the path of law” at first before any talks can began on the crisis. The lawmaker of Catalan, Mireia Boya, who is associated with Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), said that the independence will be declared after the parliamentary session on October, 9 th to re-evaluate the outcomes of October, 1st votes.
“We know that there may be disbarments, arrests … But we are prepared, and in no case will it be stopped,” Miss Boya tweeted.
Puigdemont said to BBC that he planned to ask the parliament of Catalan to announce publicly their independence after the referendum. While the government of Spain and its constitutional court declared the referendum illegal as only a minority of Catalans voted.
Puigdemont said without being specific about independence of Catalan that ”I am sure that in the next few days we will show the best of our country when the institutions of Catalonia will have to apply the results of the referendum.”
“Today we are closer than yesterday to our historic wish.”
On the contrary, Mr. Mariano responded by saying that Puigdemont has let go of his opportunity to negotiate: “If Mr. Puigdemont wants to talk or negotiate, or wants to send mediators, he knows perfectly well what he must do first: Return to the path of the law.”
The results of referendum have shown that only 43% of Catalans voted for independence and the rest only voted against the government basically to boycott the ballot.
Background of Catalonia Crisis:
Spain was recently restored to democratic form of government in 1975 following the demise of Dictator, Francisco Franco, under whose regime the language and traditions of Catalan were entirely suppressed.
On October, 3 rd 2017, Puigdemont accused King Felipe VI who berated harshly the reaction of Catalan’s leaders as a display of absolute “irresponsible behavior”. The king disappointed Catalan’s people by not calling for dialogue their leaders and for endorsing Rajoy’s policies which are “catastrophic” for Catalonia, said Puigdemont.
However, the King of Spain Felipe VI criticized secessionist leaders of Catalonia for breaching the democratic principles of Catalan and dividing the society, as thousands of Catalans took to streets for protesting against the crackdown by police by banning of independence referendum conducted on Sunday. The crackdown had injured around 900 people and shook the foundations of Spain.
The protest on October 3 rd , 2017 shut down public transport, traffic and businesses. Moreover, the referendum had plunged Spain into its worst constitutional crisis after decades of democracy.
Catalonia is determined to declare independence till Monday and Spain’s government hasn’t interrupted so far to negotiate and put an end to crisis. The result of votes for independence and those against the crackdown demonstrate a different story. The King should interfere and bring back the Catalans to law before any severity may erupt out of the crisis.
